Machine Learning

The hype and media coverage may have died down a bit but many car makers still believe that autonomous is the future of driving. What many won't admit, however, is how difficult it really is to train those self-driving systems. Most of them require going through known roads multiple times using complicated data from pre-scanned areas. MIT researchers, however, are developing an AI that can go through new territory with just a GPS-based map and some human intelligence.

We might be on the verge of reaching uncanny valley when it comes to real-time translation of the spoken word. It's already amazing how systems, particularly Google's, are now able to translate what we say on the fly but almost all of those speak in their own obviously synthesized voices. What would you feel if you heard yourself speaking another language you barely know? That's the magical and almost unsettling future that Google Translate might offer thanks to Translatotron.

Buying shoes is often shown on TV and movies as a very addicting and enjoyable activity. Reality is that picking the right size, especially for someone else, can be a stressful ordeal. Shoe sizes and measurements are anything but standard. Fortunately, Nike, one of the biggest names in the shoe industry has decided to use that special AI and machine learning sauces to make that process a little less tedious.

The usefulness and capability of machine learning and artificial intelligence when it comes to technological advancement is already clear to many of us, but what about when it comes to creating art? That's one question Google is setting out to answer with Poemportraits, which is creating one big collective poem through a collaboration between humans and AI.

Most of us have probably experienced toxicity in one form or another while gaming online, and it's a problem that doesn't seem to be getting any better. In-game toxicity is bad enough in games where you have to pay to play, but in free to play games, the number of unsavory folks one encounters can seem to quickly grow out of control. Most developers, of course, implement in-game reporting systems and teams of people to dole out punishments for toxicity, but now Intel is looking at ways that AI can help.

Ever dreamed of creating a musical masterpiece that would be remembered for centuries but don't even know how to play an instrument? While not everyone can be like the famed Johann Sebastian Bach, we thankfully now have technology that can turn even the most random of notes into a melody that may be worthy of an orchestra performance. At least if you use Google's upcoming Doodle tribute to Bach, which not only marks the musician's 334th birthday but is also its first ever AI-powered interactive experience.

Soon, not being able to draw may no longer be an excuse not to express yourself or your ideas in beautiful, photorealistic images. If you can scribble a shape and click on a few buttons, a shaky line can turn into a mountain range, a lopsided circle can become a lake, and incomprehensible doodles can transform into a masterpiece. That's pretty much the unbelievable accomplishment that NVIDIA researchers have made in developing the deep learning model named GauGAN that can turn almost any collection of lines into a work of art.

The Internet is something of an equal opportunity tool that empowers both the good and the bad. The anonymity it provides has encouraged frightened voices to speak up in opposition to oppressive powers but it has also emboldened less conscientious actors to say things they would never say face-to-face. That's why Alphabet's Jigsaw is working on an experimental Tune Chrome extension that lets users tune out those toxic comments for some temporary peace of mind.

Research is going on around the world when it comes to making renewable energy more efficient. Wind power is one of the green energy generation methods that are being worked on, and wind farms are a big part of the carbon-free energy generation scheme. But they come with challenges.

As artificial intelligence becomes more and more capable, the implications of those capabilities start to become equal parts scary and impressive. That's particularly true when it comes to creating images of human faces, and a new website that's making the rounds today sums up the capabilities of machine learning pretty darn well. If you thought that AI wasn't to the point where it could create fake-yet-believable human faces, prepare for a rather rude awakening.

Adobe is setting an AI loose on your photos, with its new Enhance Details feature added to Lightroom CC among other apps to auto-magically increase their resolution by up to 30-percent. Powered by Sensei, the new system takes raw photos and applies a whole new way of processing them.

As the use of renewable energy, in this case solar power, continues to rise in the US, there's also a growing need to better understand not just how much of the country's energy comes from solar, but also how many solar panels are in use and where they are installed. While the government and utilities can offer estimates on commercial installations, the lack of data on individual residential installations makes these inaccurate. That's where Stanford University's DeepSolar Project aims to help.